Friday, April 27, 2007

THE DEFENDERS: GRAY LADY DOWN

Dreary.

The scene at Dodd Stadium tonight is almost surreal. With rain washing away the Connecticut Defenders’ planned fireworks display, the number of fans on hand can be counted exactly that way – on your hand.

Rain poured down steadily an hour before game time. The warning track was drenched but the infield was well-protected. The rain slowed down considerably at 6 p.m. and radar maps showed a window of opportunity. The Defenders were true to their obligation of getting the game in no matter how few folks were there to witness it.

A team gets only so many Friday nights and can schedule only so many fireworks shows so having one taken away is a difficult proposition for a franchise that is striving to improve its image. The scenario, with the Defenders' logo being a submarine, reminds me of the 1978 movie, "Gray Lady Down," with Charlton Heston about a nuclear sub stuck on an ocean ledge. The Defenders need to break free and glide away if the franchise is to survive in southeastern Connecticut.

The goal for Rock Cats manager Riccardo Ingram is for his pitching staff to establish itself. An ERA of 5.51 and 81 runs in 13 games aren’t what he had in mind.

“We’ve got to get some middle relief and our starters have to build up stamina and have better starts,” Ingram said. “The whole way around, we’ve got to shore it up.”

Right-hander Jesse Floyd, a former Defender, gets his chance to establish himself on a Dodd Stadium mound that should be mighty familiar to him. Floyd was 4-14 with a 4.00 ERA in 25 games last year before the Twins grabbed him the Rule 5 draft last December. He comes into the game at 1-2 with a 6.75 ERA.

Thursday, April 26, 2007

WHAT THE BOX SCORE WON’T TELL YOU

The Rock Cats’ 5-4 win over the Portland Sea Dogs on Tuesday placed Rashad Eldridge and Gil Velazquez on the hero’s podium and for good reason.

With the score tied in the home 10th, Eldridge rammed a leadoff triple high off the 16-foot wall in right-center field. Velazquez, perhaps the most overlooked and underrated player on the team and maybe in the entire Twins system, wasted little time in chasing Eldridge home by launching a game-winning sacrifice fly.

But the contributions of both players went much deeper.

In the seventh inning, Portland had runners on first and second with two down when Jeff Natale tapped a grounder past the mound. Velazquez charged in, bare-handed the ball and fired to first base for the inning-ending out.

In the Portland ninth, mega-prospect Jacoby Ellsbury stood at second with two down, again with Natale at bat. The Hamden native chopped what looked like a routine grounder toward Velazquez but the ball took a strange hop. Velazquez instinctively adjusted and made a play that may look routine in the scorebook but it saved a run and allowed the game to go into extra innings.

The Rock Cats tied the game with three runs in the eighth, thanks in large part to one of five Portland errors. Before any of the runs had come across, Velazquez came up with runners at first and second with two outs. He battled former UConn righty Mike James for a walk, which loaded the bases and prolonged the frame.

Eldridge was 1-for-18 coming into his game-changing at-bat, but the tone was set in his previous time at the plate. Rock Cats hitting coach Floyd Rayford has been urging his pupils to hit the ball where it’s pitched and Eldridge lined it hard to left, but right at the left fielder.

It set the tone for his game-winning heroics.

“When you hit a ball hard like that, you know that your timing is perfect,” Eldridge said about the lineout. “It felt good and I was (anxious) to get another at-bat. I wasn’t mad that I got out. I was kind of happy because I got my timing down.”

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

CHANGES BEGIN

Personnel changes are a fact of life in minor league baseball that fans often find hard to digest.

In the case of the Double-A New Britain Rock Cats, injuries sustained by the parent Minnesota Twins or the Triple-A Rochester Red Wings generally set the domino theory in motion.

The Rock Cats received word of their first transaction of 2007 Tuesday when Tristan Crawford was shipped from the Red Wings to New Britain. The Australian-born Crawford, 24, was 0-1 with a 10.12 ERA in three games for Rochester. He was 6-5 with a 3.66 ERA in 46 games for New Britain last season, when he threw all but two games out of the bullpen.

Crawford, who will start for the Rock Cats, fills the roster spot of right-hander Anthony Swarzak, who was suspended 50 games for violating baseball’s drug policy. He will start against Portland in the Thursday morning game.

How much will personnel changes shape this year’s team? Only time will tell, but history offers a pretty good perspective of what’s in store. Last year, there were 48 transactions affecting the status of 28 different players. Former New Britain catcher Steve Lomasney, who played big-league ball with the Red Sox in 1999, was affected four times.

There were 62 transactions in both 2004 and 2005.